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Outcry over prisoner abuse

Ewen MacAskill, Rory McCarthy and Michael Howard

Iraqi police force is now subject to intense scrutiny

London/Baghdad: Seif Saad, an Iraqi guard, showed no remorse on Wednesday for the detention and alleged abuse of 173 prisoners in Baghdad.

``We placed sacks on their heads and tied their hands behind their backs,'' he said of their arrests, but, as far as he was concerned, they were suspected terrorists.

He was standing in a watchtower overlooking the Ministry of the Interior building where the detenus were held. The cells were found at the weekend by U.S. forces and the discovery of the prisoners - and the allegations of torture - have provoked an international outcry.

The Iraqi police force is now subject to intense scrutiny. The main charge is that the police have been infiltrated by Shia Muslim paramilitaries - in particular the Iranian-backed Badr Brigades - who have targeted Iraq's minority Sunni community, from which the militancy arose.

Several accounts

Since a new Iraqi Government was established in the spring, several accounts have emerged of arrests, abuse and extra-judicial killings by paramilitary forces linked to the Ministry and dominated by Shia Muslims operating in squads with names such as the Scorpions and the Wolf Brigade. Almost all the incidents have had a sectarian edge.

Saad (18), a former labourer with no police training, denied the arrests were religiously motivated. He told a Reuters reporter the suspects had been brought in for questioning in connection with bombings, regardless of whether they were Sunni, Shia or Kurd. The reporter said Mr Saad wore a special forces uniform resembling that of a Shia paramilitary group.

U.S. forces said they had been hunting for a missing youth when they uncovered the secret detention centre. The Iraqi Government has launched an inquiry and promised an answer within a week.

But Manfred Novak, the U.N. special envoy on torture, based in Geneva, called for an independent inquiry. He has received various allegations of torture and degrading treatment by both U.S. and Iraqi forces in Iraq. ``That torture is still practised in Iraq after Saddam Hussein is no secret,'' he said.

Stephen Bowen, an Amnesty International U.K. campaigns director, said: ``This is by no means the first time that we've encountered cases of detainees apparently being tortured by members of the Interior Ministry - a grisly pattern is emerging. It's tragic that after years of documenting torture, killings and incommunicado detention under Saddam, we are talking about the same issues in the same country - with different perpetrators.'' Mr. Hussein used 12 branches of the secret police, to oppress the Shias and Kurds.

— © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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